In our digital world, almost everyone puts themselves online whether it is on social media or using online banking or sending emails. With the increase of technology usage through social media, online banking, and cloud technology, keeping your computer safe is becoming a top priority. Every computer needs threat protection to keep your information safe at all times.
What are the Threats to Your Computer?
You are at risk for threats to your computer every time you browse the internet, open an email from someone you don’t recognize or click on suspicious links. These threats are designed to infect your computer (or other devices) and cause serious damage. Some common threats to your computer include:
- Malware: malicious software that is designed to disrupt a computer or a network
- Ransomware: block access to your device or data by encrypting it and demanding money to unblock it
- Viruses: replicates itself to destroy your computer
- Spyware: malware designed to spy on your device daily so the attacker can create scams
- Trojans: software that appears to be genuine and invites the user to run it but instead deletes your files and harms your computers
- Keylogger: logs keyboard strokes looking for passwords and other confidential information
- Worms: self-replicate and travel from device to device through a network
- Phishing and Pharming: emails that look official try to get personal information from you
- Denial of service (DOS) attacks: renders a computer or other device unavailable by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the internet.
How Can You Protect Your Computer?
There are steps you can take to protect yourself and your computer from malware and other online threats.
Antivirus Software
Software that helps to protect your computer by detecting threats before they happen. These programs can hunt for computer threats so that you never unwillingly install something harmful to your device. The software will alert you to any threats and delete them before they can corrupt your computer. Make sure to perform daily scans on your computer to make sure it is safe. And of course, always keep your antivirus software up to date.
Wi-Fi and VPN
You should avoid unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and public Wi-Fi networks. With the right equipment, hackers could be able to access your data and gain control over your device. You need to use a secure connection which you can do by creating your private network using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN creates an encrypted private network over a public one through which your online traffic is routed. This allows you to safely browse the internet without worrying about online threats because your online activities are untraceable.
Email is one of the primary ways people fall victim to malware. Be cautious when opening email attachments. Viruses are often transmitted from a contact that has become compromised themselves and they are not the actual intended sender of the email. Do not click on any links in an email that are sent from someone you don’t know. Instead, open a new browser and manually navigate to the site to make sure it is legit.
Also, never download any files or attachments from a suspicious source before first scanning them for viruses. You can also disable image previews in your email client. Malware and other viruses can be transmitted by previewing an email with infected images. Make sure you only view images from trusted sources.
Why Should You Protect Your Computer?
Every computer needs threat protection to keep you and your device safe.
Your Computer Will Last Longer
By installing a program to monitor threats to your computer, it will help your computer last longer. Viruses can cause your computer to slow down, crash Malware and other threats to your computer can compromise the hard drive and delete all your files
Keep Your Identity Safe
Identity theft on the internet is a serious problem that affects people on a daily basis. One way to keep your identity safe is to use a password manager. This will keep your passwords protected when using highly sensitive websites, like online banking, requiring a master password by inputted before the websites login information is keyed in.
Never give out personal information from an unsolicited source. There are plenty of scams out there that use email to gain access to people’s information. While an email might look official, always be cautious and never give out your information without checking the source first.
Keeping yourself safe in the digital age is important and this is why every computer needs threat protection.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.